How do you clean your pacifiers?
My twin girls are two and a half and use their pacis at naptime and bedtime.
When they get up they put their pacis in the sink and then I clean them
with soap and water. I sometimes feel like this isn't enough and we've had a
lot of sicknesses passed back and forth this winter. Should I throw them away
and start new?
It seems silly to do that since they're so old! Any suggestions on how to
keep them clean?
thanks,
thanks for the responses. i do put them in the dishwasher sometimes and i boiled them too and will continue to do that, although i'll probably buy some more. my kids have not been "normal sick" this winter. this has been crazy. today two of them spent the afternoon throwing up. this is following first a week long bout of rotovirus (anyone who has had this awful thing come into their home knows how crazy it is), two ER visits for that, then they all got an adenoid virus which means they got crazy sore throats, conjunctivitis, and my son spent a week on the couch with a 104 fever. my daughter got it and was up all night every night for over a week. as soon as she recovered (for a day) from that, she began throwing up for two days. she now has diahrea and the other two began vomiting today. before all this started (the past 2 months), we had the stomach flu, pneumonia (one daughter), and many coughs and colds, oh, and bronchitis.
i'm sure i'm forgetting something.....
so i don't think i'm being a germaphobe, we really have been hit hard and i'm trying to figure out if i need to make some changes
Goodness, you're already washing them more than anyone I've ever met! Don't worry about it. The pacifiers are most likely not the cause of sicknesses being passed around; that's called Normal Life With Kids and it does get better as they get older. Just roll with it. Germ-free is impossible and not even desirable; you want them to be exposed to some germs to build up their immune systems.
I use the micro santizing bags from my breast pump. Quick and easy...but I also replace them every couple months. They do get yucky no matter what....
Put them in your mouth, suck them off and give them back to your kids. Don't be too worried about germs. Kids need germs to build up their immune systems.
I put my daughters in the dishwasher on the top rack in a basket.
After soap and water, drop them in a pot of boiling water for 5 minutes....like sterilizing bottles
Just run them through the dishwasher. Maybe get an extra set to have available in between dishwasher loads, but the heat of the dishwasher will take care of sanitizing them.
What about putting them in a saucepan on the stove with enough water to keep the pot from burning, and boiling them for about 5 minutes? I seem to remember doing this with baby bottles. Maybe another option is to soak them in water with a VERY small amount of bleach. Any other ideas??
BOIL them up to 5 min, that's the best way. The pacifiers manufacturers also recommend it. The sanitazing bags are great too, you can use them to sanitaze different stuff too: small plastic toys,cups parts.. etc.
Don't put them in your mouth like somebody said, yuuu.
You don't need chemicals on your pacifiers either. So boiling them is probably the healthiest way.
Using your dishwasher and heated dry setting works as well.
I rinse ours each morning, and put them in the dishwasher when they look grungy or when I am running a cycle during a non-binky usage time. I generally replace them at most once a month, sometimes sooner. My son is almost two and a half and he still uses his for naptime and bedtime, too, so I think it's just fine for your girls :)
S.,
it is perfectly fine to throw the pacifiers in the dish washer. you can buy little baskets at babys r us - made for pacifier and bottle nipples. i wash my daughters pacifiers and nipples all the time in the dish washer; and it is perfectly safe. my girls have never gotten sick. in fact no one in my family has gotten sick this winter!
K.
I would buy new ones. They say to replace at least every three months. I have two for each of my twins.Before bed time they each get a new(clean ,washed and left to dry from the night before with soap and water).I would stop having them put their pacifiers in the sink (the kitchen sink is said to have more germs than a bathroom sink). Also, I wouldn't suggest washing them in the dishwasher or boiling them again(only when you first get them like the package says). Otherwise you are breaking down the plastic and it is not healthy. We haven't had any problems following this cleaning routine . Good luck to you!
For my twins and my older daughter, I always used the Medela breast pump parts santizing bags. You put some water in the bags with the pacifiers and microwave them. They're made for sanitizing pump parts faster than boiling, but work perfectly well for bottle nipples or pacifiers, too. One bag is good for something like 10-12 "cooks" too. They are in the breastfeeding/pump parts section at Babies R Us.
you can sterilize them either in a sterilizer or putting them in boiling water for a few mins.
Boiling them for 5 minutes once a week is what I was told!
I have a 3 year old. And I am going through the same thing
What I do to sanitize, I boil them in a pot for a couple of minutes after I wash them with soap and water.
What i do with my daughter pacifers is boil them in hot water for 30 minutes -
I think the best way to sanitize the pacifiers is to boil them for about 5 minutes once a week. I think washing in with soap and water everyday and just as good.
I usually boil mine in water for 3 minutes or put them in the dishwasher to sterilize them.
Hi S.:
Boiling pacifiers in hot water should do the trick. I'm a speech pathologist and I also weaned both my daughters off the pacificer around the 2-1/2 year mark. Using pacifiers much longer affects dentition (open bites) and affects speech production (tongue thrust). Everyone is ready to let go of these little bacteria breeders when they are ready. Good luck. J. B.
When my son got really sick, we threw them away. But you can also boil water and throw the pacifiers in for a couple of minutes.
